Stanton man guilty of special circumstances murder

SANTA ANA – A Stanton man sat teary-eyed in court Wednesday when a jury convicted him of the murder of a Sacramento woman and a string of rapes during a 26-month span that ended with his arrest in 2005.

The verdict sets the stage for a penalty-phase hearing next week to determine whether Waymon Livingston, 29, should be sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole.

Livingston was also convicted of a penalty enhancement that he committed sexual assaults on multiple victims and the aggravated assault of a fifth woman. The jury deadlocked on one count of rape.

The mother and grandmother of murder victim Melissa Ann Gonzalez, 21, cried and hugged each other in the courtroom gallery when the verdicts were announced.

Livingston was arrested by Anaheim police at his Stanton home on Oct. 11, 2007, after forensic examiners at the Orange County Crime Laboratory analyzed evidence from three sexual assaults and matched him to genetic material left at the crime scenes, prosecutors said.

The jury of seven women and five men in Superior Court Judge Richard Toohey's courtroom will hear additional evidence beginning Wednesday to determine if Livingston should receive the death penalty.